Written Answers Tuesday 11 April 2006

Scottish Executive

Drug Misuse

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much money has been confiscated from drug dealers by the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency since its inception.

Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what its policy is regarding the allocation of funds confiscated by the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.

Hugh Henry: The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA) has not confiscated any criminal assets. The role of SDEA is to identify and report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service assets for potential confiscation.

  To date three initiatives have benefited from reinvestment of assets recovered from criminals under Proceeds of Crime legislation – a project for homeless drug users; a network for families of drug users, and last year’s Drug Dealers Don’t Care, Do You? campaign.

  We announced on 14 March 2006 that around £2 million would be reinvested in the six local authorities across Scotland which suffer most serious violent crime. The Community Safety Partnerships in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire have each identified two wards to benefit and are to submit proposals based on four core themes of sports initiatives in the evening and weekends; vehicle related packages such as CCTV and graffiti clear up vans or community transport; school packages which could include after hours clubs or youth outreach work, and localised Drug Dealers Don’t Care, Do You? campaigns to encourage the local community to help get more dealers off the streets.

Health

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people received tattoo removal treatment on the NHS in (a) Scotland and (b) Ayrshire and Arran in 2005-06.

Mr Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available.

Health

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it issues to NHS boards in respect of the removal of tattoos.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Centre for Change and Innovation’s Patient Pathways project includes a plastic surgery exceptional referral pathway, which has been issued to NHS boards. The pathway guidance has been developed by an expert group of clinicians and patient representatives. It covers tattoo removals, and suggests that this procedure should only be offered in circumstances where, for example, the individual is suffering from extreme psychological distress.

  The pathways are offered as guidance to the NHS for adaptation locally, but are not mandatory. Decisions will continue to be made at local level on an individual patient basis, based on a clinical assessment.

Health

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much was spent by the NHS on tattoo removal treatments in 2005-06.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not held centrally by The Scottish Executive.

NHS Staff

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses were employed by each NHS board in each year since 1999 on (a) permanent and (b) temporary contracts.

Mr Andy Kerr: Centrally held information on nurses in post does not explicitly identify those on a permanent or temporary contract.

  Information on nurses in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at: www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Nuclear Power

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-23887 by Allan Wilson on 16 March 2006, if there have been no discussions between it and Her Majesty’s Government on the subject of new nuclear stations in Scotland how it can be sure that there are no proposals to build new nuclear power stations anywhere in Scotland.

Allan Wilson: As noted in my answer to question S2W-23887 on 16 March 2006, Executive officials are engaged in the UK Energy Review. This includes consideration of the role of all generating technologies – including nuclear.

  The Executive’s position on nuclear power remains, however, that it will not support the further development of nuclear power stations while waste management issues remain unresolved.

  The Executive is aware of no proposals to site new nuclear power stations in Scotland. Scottish ministers, to whom any such application would have to be made, have received no application to consent a new nuclear power station. Nor, so far as they are they aware, are there any proposals to bring forward such an application.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Tourism

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what efforts it will make to improve the tourist industry in light of claims in the latest Lonely Planet Scotland that Scotland needs to work harder at attracting tourists.

Patricia Ferguson: While the Scottish tourism industry is continuing to grow, we are fully aware of the challenges that Scotland faces from the increasing number of competing tourist destinations around the world. In addition, the expectations of our guests are constantly changing and rising, and it thus becomes an even greater challenge to exceed them. That is why we have been working in very close partnership with the tourism industry as a whole to identify opportunities for improvement and the changes that need to be made. The result of that collaboration is a joint action plan – the Tourism Framework for Change – which was published in March 2006.

Tourism

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it and VisitScotland will take to promote Dundee as a first-class holiday destination.

Patricia Ferguson: The Scottish Executive and VisitScotland remain committed to increasing the value of tourism across all areas of Scotland as was demonstrated in the recent launch of a Tourism Framework for Change. VisitScotland will continue to promote Dundee as a great city to visit through a range of marketing campaigns and other promotional activities.

  Dundee is promoted as part of VisitScotland’s City Break marketing campaigns along with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Stirling. Dundee is also featured in VisitScotland’s recent CityFreedom campaign, which promoted the idea that visitors to Scottish cities can get the best of both worlds – urban and rural experiences combined in one short break. The campaign targets visitors from the UK. City breaks, with elements such as walks, cycling, wildlife, architecture, gardens, castles and historic sites, will be promoted in a variety of ways. A new section has been included on VisitScotland’s city breaks website (www.visitscotland.com/citybreaks), which gives visitors information about everything from day trips to where the best city and rural views are. As part of the campaign 46,000 direct mail leaflets will be sent to people who take city breaks across the UK containing the message "no need to be torn between city and country on a short break in Scotland". The List Cities Guide will be used as part of the City Freedom Spring direct mail, and electronic newsletters featuring the six cities with the lead theme City Freedom, supported by City Culture and City Shopping will go out early in April.

  In addition, VisitScotland is working in conjunction with BBC Radio 1 to ensure that Dundee gets the maximum benefit from Radio 1’s Big Weekend in May when they will take over Camperdown Park in Dundee for the weekend of Saturday 13 May and Sunday 14.